The Centurions

by The Centurions (retail) (epub)

  ARGENTORATUM

  PROBUS

  Camp prefect at Argentoratum

  PAULINUS

  Lucius Paulinus, a historian, nephew of Gentilius Paulinus

  TULLIUS

  Ex-legionary, servant of Paulinus

  SILVANUS

  Centurion in the Eighth Legion Augusta

  VERUS

  Silvanus’s body servant

  BERICUS

  Flavius’s body servant

  CALPURNIUS RUFINUS

  Legate of the Eighth Augusta

  MESSALA COMINIUS

  Commander of the Eighth Cohort of the Eighth Augusta

  LABIENUS

  Senior surgeon of the Eighth Augusta

  LUCANUS

  Labienus’s junior surgeon

  ANSET

  An Egyptian wineshop keeper

  RHODOPE

  A madam

  JULIUS

  A slave

  BEORN

  A German trader

  QUINTUS

  A man of Correus’s century

  GERMANY

  NYALL

  Nyall Sigmundson, chieftain of the Semnones

  MORGIAN

  Nyall’s mother

  LYTING

  Nyall’s nephew

  KARI

  Son of a Roman woman and a warrior of the Semnones

  GEIR

  A Semnone warrior, Nyall’s envoy

  HALLGERD

  A Semnone woman

  GILLI

  Called Gilli the Lame, Hallgerd’s brother

  ASUIN

  A priest of the Semnones

  ARNGUNN

  Chieftain of the Nicretes

  GUDRUN

  His wife

  FIORGYN

  His daughter

  SAEUNN

  One of Fiorgyn’s waiting women

  VALGERD

  A priest of the Nicretes

  ARNI, INGALD, RANVIG

  Warriors of the Nicretes

  HOSKULD

  Chieftain of the Suarines

  JORUNN

  One of the ten chieftains of the Agri Decumates

  FRIETA

  A woman of Jorunn’s tribe

  Glossary

  aedile: Roman political official in charge of games, the markets, various public archives

  Aesculapius: god of healing

  Agri Decumates: the lands between the Rhine and the Danube

  Ahriman: Persian personification of evil

  amphora: large, narrow-necked jar used to store and transport wine and food

  Aphrodite: goddess of love

  Apollo: sun god

  Aquae: Baden-Baden

  Arachne: Lydian maiden who was changed to a spider for bragging to Athena about her weaving skill

  arena: any theater in which gladiatorial combats and spectacles were held; generally an open-air amphitheater

  Argentoratum: Strasbourg

  Atalanta: beautiful maiden who agreed to marry only the man who could outrun her in a footrace; the successful suitor won her by dropping three golden apples given him by Aphrodite along the course, delaying Atalanta, who stopped to pick them up

  Athena: virgin goddess of wisdom and power

  atrium: the central room of a Roman house

  Augusta Raurica: Kaiser-Augst (a locality between Basel and Rheinfelden)

  Augusta Treverorum: Trier

  auxiliaries: cavalry, light troops, bowmen, etc., recruited from the provinces; term applied to all units other than the legions; officers were Roman, men received Roman citizenship upon their discharge

  Bacchus: god of wine

  caltrops: four-pronged iron spikes thrown on the ground to hinder the enemy

  Castor and Pollux: twin sons of Leda, devoted to each other even in death.

  Centuriate: collective term for the centurions of the Roman Army

  century: a unit of eighty men; six centuries made a cohort

  Ceres: goddess of grain and harvest

  cohort: six centuries; ten cohorts made up a legion

  corona civica: oak-leaf crown awarded to a soldier who saved the life of a fellow citizen

  cuirass: close-fitting body armor covering the torso

  Cybele: Asian form of Earth Mother

  Danuvius: the Danube River

  decurion: officer of cavalry or auxiliaries

  denarius: Roman silver coin valued at one twenty-fifth of the standard gold coin, the aureus; four sesterces equaled one denarius; at this time a legionary’s pay was 225 denarii a year, a centurion’s between 3,750 and 15,000

  dexter: right-hand

  Donar: German god of thunder, protector of men

  Eagle: the standard of a legion

  Eagles: the Roman legions

  Eir: German goddess of healing

  Flora: goddess of flowers and spring

  Frey: German god of fruitfulness and harvest, patron of marriage

  Furies: avenging goddesses

  games: gladiatorial combats, wild-beast shows, and other spectacles put on for the public amusement

  Genua: Genoa

  German gods: The gods mentioned in this book are listed individually.

  Germany:

  Upper Germany: the west bank of the Upper Rhine and parts of modern France and Switzerland

  Lower Germany: the west bank of the Lower Rhine and modern Netherlands

  Barbarian Germany (or the Free Lands): Germany east of the Rhine and north of the Danube

  Gorgons: three frightful sisters whose look turns the beholder to stone

  greaves: lower leg armor

  Hades: lord of the underworld; also the name of the underworld itself

  Hel: German goddess of the underworld

  Hephaestus: lame god of the forge

  Hercules: hero god famed for great feats of strength

  hortator: on a trireme, one who sets time for the oar strokes with a mallet

  hypocaust: Roman hot-air heating system

  Isis: Earth Mother in her Egyptian form

  Juno: wife of Jupiter, goddess of marriage and childbirth

  Jupiter: Roman name of Zeus, all-powerful father of the gods, protector of Rome

  latrunculi: Roman board game

  legate: commander of a legion

  legionary: the enlisted man of the legions; he was a Roman citizen

  lorica: body armor of several types; at this time the legions were beginning to change from mail to segmented plates

  magistrate: civil official of a Roman provincial town

  Mediolanum: Milan

  Mercury: messenger of the gods and guide of the dead into the underworld; also an arena attendant who dragged away dead bodies

  Mithras: Persian god of light and truth, mediator between man and the supreme god

  Moenus: the Main River

  Moesia: Serbia and Bulgaria

  Moguntiacum: Mainz

  the Mother: Earth Mother in any of her many forms

  Neapolis: Naples

  net-and-trident: a form of gladiatorial combat in which the gladiator was armed with a three-pronged spear and a net with which to entangle his opponent

  Nicer: the Neckar River

  optio: second-in-command and general aide assigned to all officers

  Pan: god of woodlands and horned beasts

  Pannonia: parts of Austria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia south and west of the Danube

  Persephone: maiden abducted by Hades to become his wife; doomed to spend six months of each year in the underworld

  Picts: barbarian tribe of northern Britain, called Picti or Painted Ones from their custom of all-over tattooing

  pilum: Roman military javelin

  Poseidon: sea god and god of horses

  praetor: Roman political official, a legal magistrate appointed to courts in Rome and the provinces

  Praetorian Guard: the home guard of Rome, the elite of the army, and the personal bodyguard of the Emperor

  prefect: commander of an army camp;
in a legionary base, he would command in the absence of the legate.

  Priapus: god of gardens and fertility

  primus pilus: commander of the First Cohort; in the field, second-in-command of a legion

  Principia: headquarters building in a Roman fort

  quaestor: Roman political official in charge of financial affairs; the first step in the career ladder

  Rhenus: the Rhine River

  Roma Dea: goddess personification of the City of Rome

  Roman gods: In addition to their own gods, the Romans imported cults from almost all the peoples with whom they came in contact. The Greek pantheon was almost entirely reflected in the Roman one, and Romans tended to use their names interchangeably. Gods mentioned in this book are listed individually.

  Saturnalia: Roman winter festival when slaves impersonated their masters and vice versa

  sesterce: bronze coin worth one-fourth of a denarius

  Sign of Horns: invoking the Horned God (similar to Pan) to ward off evil

  Sirens: sea nymphs whose songs charm sailors to their death

  spina: central divider on a chariot track

  strigil: instrument used to scrape the skin clean before bathing

  Tartarus: lowest level of the underworld

  torque: neck ornament, worn by Roman soldiers on the chest as a decoration

  tribune: officer of a legion, generally a young man serving a short term before beginning a political career

  trireme: galley with three banks of oars

  Tritons: male sea gods, half fish, half human

  Typhon: fire-breathing monster and creator of hurricanes, said to have a hundred heads and terrible voices

  Valhalla: German paradise for the souls of slain heroes

  Venus: Roman name of Aphrodite

  Vesta: goddess of the hearth

  Vestal Virgins: priestesses of Vesta, supposed to be incorruptible

  Via Praetoria: one of the main roads of a Roman camp, leading to the Principia and to the Praetorium, the commander’s private quarters

  Via Principalis: the main lateral road of a Roman camp

  vicus: the civil settlement outside a Roman fort

  Vindonissa: Windisch

  vine staff: a centurion’s staff of office; literally a cane cut from vine wood

  watch: troops patrolling a civil settlement

  Wuotan: German chief of all the gods; sky god; god of light, war, and knowledge, giver of life breath to men

  Author’s Note

  My first encounter with the Romans was as the people who produced Julius Caesar, the man who produced the interminable Commentaries through which I waded reluctantly in high school Latin class. Then in college I met the Romans once more, through the eyes of a gifted teacher and such historical novelists as Robert Graves, author of I, Claudius. My ensuing love affair with Rome is now twelve years old and shows no sign of abating.

  Suddenly the Romans were people, men and women struggling, even as you and I, in a time of civil conflict, unstable government, expanding boundaries, and all the ills of “civilization” – inflation, unemployment, racial prejudice, and overpopulation. What struck me most about the Romans, I think, was their resemblance to the British Empire and to America as we grew to a world power. Rome was the force of progress – not always right, but well-intentioned more often than not; struggling to do her best first for her own people and then for her conquered provinces; cruelly barbaric in some ways, enlightened and just in others; trying to keep pace with her own expansion and the march of progress, which can sometimes be deplored, but rarely turned back.

  The Romans are ourselves, our origins. They gave us much of our form of government and our code of ethics. In Rome at her height, science and art reached a peak that was not to come again for more than a thousand years. And in the Romans our own triumphs and mistakes are uncannily mirrored.

  “Wherever the Roman conquers, there he dwells.” So said Seneca, in an apt summation of the Roman conquest. Rome’s soldiers settled in the provinces they conquered, they married native women and raised Roman sons with half-British or half-German blood to follow them in the army. And gradually the provinces became as Roman as the City that stood at the heart of things. They must have looked at the City of Rome, these Romans born and bred on the frontier, much as the British in India looked homeward to England. You will find Roman ruins from Britain to Africa, ruins that once were houses and temples and law courts.

  The Centurions Series

  Find out what happens next for Correus and Flavius in Barbarian Princess, the second epic adventure in The Centurions. Here the brothers are stationed to Wales, a land full of barbarians, mud and freezing weather. Here they must face the pain of lost love, the shame of lost battle, and the thrill of a new era for their beloved Rome…

  Book one: The Centurions

  Book Two: Barbarian Princess

  Book Three: The Emperor’s Games

  First published in the United States in 1981 by Ballantine Books

  This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by

  Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

  57 Shepherds Lane

  Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2DU

  United Kingdom

  Copyright © Damion Hunter, 1981

  The moral right of Damion Hunter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781788632027

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Look for more great books at www.canelo.co